COHN, MILDRED

COHN, MILDRED (1913– ), U.S. physical and biochemist. Cohn was born in New York City and earned a B.A. from Hunter College and Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Columbia University. Her life-long interests were metabolism and enzyme mechanisms, and she was a pioneer in applying stable isotopic techniques and electron spin and nuclear magnetic resonance to in vivo metabolic studies. Her work greatly influenced other areas of research, including the development of anti-cancer agents. She worked at George Washington University (1937–38), Cornell University Medical School (1938–46), Washington University Medical School at St. Louis (1946–58), and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1960–82), where she became professor of biophysics and physical biochemistry in 1961 and then Benjamin Rush Professor Emerita of Physiological Chemistry. Her many honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences (1971) and the National Medal of Science (1982). She succeeded in her field despite discrimination against women early in her career and worked all her life to upgrade the status of women in science. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Chemical and Engineering News (Feb. 4, 1963), 92. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)